iranian musclemen and women photographers

January 3, 2008

If I were in Berlin, I would go right to this exhibition of six Iranian women photographers, Made in Tehran.

I would love to see Mehraneh Atashi‘s photos of Iranian men (and herself behind the camera through a mirror) in a zourkaneh. According to Kate Connolly at the Guardian, it is a ‘ “power house” – a sort of spiritual fitness centre for Iranian men in which virility, religion and the powerful symbolism of the Persian hero all come into play’.

Even if I were in Tehran I would not have gotten to see the smiles behind the bushy mustaches and the embroidered trousers she showed me.